Moto G: The next economical phone

Moto G

On 13th November, ’13, Motorola Mobility announced their successor to the Moto X in São Paulo, Brazil, named the Moto G. CEO, Dennis Woodside, started off with a briefing on the Moto X and it’s features like Active Display, Windy Day and revolutionary Moto Maker software used to design a Moto X as per the user’s requirements that landed the title of the “Best Android phone” from CNN. I’ve explained the X’s features here, so won’t explain them here again as well.

Woodside then introduced the Moto G, a smartphone “that offers a premium experience with today’s technology at less than a third of price of recent smartphones like the iPhone 5s and the Galaxy S4″. That’s when Charlie Tritschler, Product Manager, took the stage to shed light on the G.

Woodside explained that 1500 people from 6 continents were studied and surveyed so as to determine what people really look for in a smartphone. And that’s why they decided to put in the edge-to-edge display, curved back, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and a waterproof nanocoating on the outside as well as inside for protection against day to day splashes, all aimed at a comfortable and secure use without compromising on durability.

The specs of the Moto G

The G’s got a 4.5″ 720p LCD screen with a pixel density of 329 ppi. Woodside compared it to the iPhone 5s, and showed how clearly it beats the 5s’ screen size of 4″ and resolution of 1136 x 640, at just one-third of the 5s’ price. It was clear that Motorola was dissing other major smartphones with the specs of the G.

The processor onboard the Moto G is a 1.2 Ghz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1 GB of RAM. Woodside claimed that Motorola worked on a faster and more powerful processor, with minimal battery consumption, to give the claimed one day of battery life. He explained that G gives 33% more talktime than the iPhone 5s on 3G networks, jabbing at other smartphones again over here. The Moto G is compared to the Samsung Galaxy S4, and can answer calls 1.2 seconds faster, make calls 1.1 seconds faster, launch the browser 0.5 seconds faster, return to the home screen 0.5 seconds faster and boots up 5.3 seconds faster. So, it really awes the audience, and that too at a third of the price of the S4.

The G comes with a rear camera capable of snapping photos at 5 megapixels, along with burst mode features, Auto HDR, Panorama and tap-to-focus features and front facing camera of 1.3 megapixels. But the video recording occurs at just 720p at 30 frames per second the from rear and front facing cameras, when 1080p is becoming the standard norm in other competitors. But, I guess, you can’t get all the features at one-third of the price,eh ?
Slow motion video is also supported and you can snap photos by simply tapping anywhere on the screen and can capture burst mode photos by holding anywhere. One can even take photos while video recording by tapping anywhere while recording.

The Moto G ships with Android version 4.3 Jelly Bean, with a guaranteed upgrade to 4.4 KitKat by January ’14. Motorola lived up to this target, with the 4.4 version released for the Moto G in Britain and Germany on the 8th of this month.

The Moto G, coming in a standard black, with several removable colored back covers.

Unfortunately, the level of customization offered on the Moto X is still exclusive to the X.
But, the Moto G comes with a removable back with several color options – Lemon, Royal Blue, Violet and Vivid Red- purchasable separately. An active grip case is also available to protect the back and the edges, as well as a flipshell, with a foldable flap to cover the screen, so as to protect complete protection.

Other accessories are also sold separately, like the Jax in-ear earphones from SOL REPUBLIC, wireless headsets and speakers and portable battery charger. 50 GB of Google Drive storage is provided free of charge for 2 years, courtesy of Google.

Moto Migrate software lets you wirelessly transfer your photos, videos, music, SIM contacts and even your call and text history from your old Android phone to your new Moto G. Motorola Assist is the new AI software on the Moto G. For example, when it knows you’re in the car, Assist automatically connects your music to Google Play, and can help respond to messages by letting the sender know you’re driving. When it knows you’re sleeping, only important calls get through. You can set actions and exceptions so that they work exactly the way you want.

Motorola Assist while driving.

The Moto G comes in two memory variants – 8 and 16 gigs, with no expandable memory to the dismay of many. The 8 GB and 16 GB sell for $179 and $199, with no contract and no carrier restrictions, which is truly commendable. Most of the smartphones nowadays sell at that price with contracts. In certain markets, the Moto G comes with Dual SIM capabilites.